Book of Hook

[vmCodes]

Im just starting in PC Games. Im looking out for some good books to start with. The problem's that there are so many out there and im confused on which one /'s to pick.

Any suggestions ?

Regards

Vinay

[brianhook]

Sorry, I haven't looked at any "just getting started" books in a long, long time. I do, however, have pretty good faith in the reader reviews on amazon, so you might just want to search there.

[JasonR]

I would need more details to make recommendations. Are you already an experienced programmer? Education level? Math level? What part of games are you interested in first, general engine programming? Do you like Windows or Unix? What kind of games do you like?

[return42]

What JasonR said is dead on the money, without that information its hard to make a recommendation.

That said, I can offer two pieces of advice.

One... if you already know how to program, I wouldnt really bother. Atleast not initially. If you are on a fixed budget, and really want to learn all game programming, your money can be better spent. Go grab the sources to already available projects. The quake1/2 sources is a nice freeby way to start, if you want to go the shooter route. If you want to go the platformer route, download Abuse from CrackDot.com, if its still around. Then beyond that, your money would be better spent on an engine, then on a book. Torque (garagegames.com) and Cipher(www.cipherengine.com) both immediatly pop to mind, and at 100$ ish, each... they are a better learning investment then any books.

Two... if you dont know how to program... you want language books. Learning to program by writing a game, is a very very painful way to do it. Pickup a few introductory C/C++ books, C++ in a nutshell is a fairly easy to digest book for example. If you want a game focus, grab an easier to use game library like Allegro or SDL and start playing. Combined with a "welcome to your new programming language" textbook, either of these libraries will get you started with the basics, in a very user friendly but rewarding way.

Once you have a bit of experience with the basics of games, and the tools, there are a dozen decent books that will make you better. But until you get the language and basics of game programming down, IMHO, you are wasting your cash on books. Oh, and the "Teach yourself..." books, suck!

Just one opinion of course,
Mike

[vmCodes]

Ok, I guess i left the question very generic...

Ive been programming for over 6 years now. Primarily c / c++. Over the last 2 years (In my current job), I do mobile games. These are games for the BREW platform.

By doing games I mean, I port them. These games come in in either BREW or J2ME for a particular handset. My jobs to port them to various devices and if required from the J2ME platform to BREW. Bottom line, Booooooring job. The only good thing is that occasionally I get to look at some nice code...

I guess no one in the US / Europe wants to do this and we get all the junk. I guess we're cheaper too !!

Ok, so thats my background.. As to what I want to do specifically, Im interested in developing a game like Prince, or Mario. A side scrolling type game. I bought the books "Tricks of the Window Game Programming Gurus" last week and am almost done with it. Its nice but nothing specific to side scrollers.

Any of you'll done something like this ? Any kind on inputs would be great...

[gtbass]

Check out Abuse SDL.

[JasonR]

Most books are 3d related these days. I've never read a 2d book, so all I can recommend is any books on Direct Draw. Other than that, you could try using SDL and look for tutorials they have. I've seen a lot of 2d game tutorials around so you can just search for them and skip buying books. Gamedev.net probably has some links.